Park avoids questioning by prosecutors
Print Edition
SOUTH Korean President Park Geun-hye cannot be questioned as prosecutors have requested, her lawyer said, as she resists growing calls to resign over an influence scandal that has engulfed her administration.
Park is under intense pressure to step down over the crisis involving a close friend accused of meddling in state affairs, with the main opposition party seeking to put an impeachment motion up for a vote as soon as Friday.
On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of South Koreans rallied for the fifth weekend in a row, calling for Park’s resignation. Organizers said the crowd totalled 1.5 million, while the police estimated the crowd at 260,000.
Park’s lawyer, Yoo Yeong-ha, said in a text message that the president had to deal with the “fast-moving situation” and so there was little time for her to cooperate with prosecutors, who had asked to question her by today. “It is regrettable that the president cannot cooperate with face-to-face questioning the prosecutors have asked for by November 29,” Yoo said.
Instead of responding to the current investigators’ request for questioning Park, 64, will prepare for an investigation by a special prosecutor that is expected to begin in December, Yoo had said previously, although prosecutors subsequently repeated their request to question the president.
Park’s friend, Choi Soon-sil, and a former aide have been indicted in the case. Park was named as an accomplice in an investigation into whether big businesses were inappropriately pressured to contribute money to foundations set up to back Park’s initiatives.
Park, whose single five-year term is due to end in February 2018, has apologized twice over the affair, to little effect. Her approval rating fell to just 4 percent in a weekly survey released on Friday by Gallup Korea, an all time-low for a democratically elected South Korean president.
In her second public apology, earlier this month, Park said she would make herself available to any investigation, including that of a special prosecutor, adding that she would take responsibility if found guilty.
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